The First Animus
(This story can also be found on Wattpad.) THE FIRST ANIMUS by ShadowClaw Eclipse The First Animus Prophecy: Something is coming out of the egg That dragons want to see Something is coming out of the egg That will make two dragons flee Things will happen because of the egg Many of those will come true The future can be unpredictable Dragons will never have a clue Prolougue This story takes place 1,000 years after the Scorching. The dragonet scratched restlessly at her egg. It had confined her for many moons. She knew she must come out soon. She couldn't stay in there forever, after all. It's about time, ''the dragonet thought. ''Time to claw harder. She literally started whacking the egg with her talons. It went something like this: Let, WHACK! Me, ''WHACK! ''Out! ''WHACK! ''Repeat. The egg let out a satisfying cracking noise. Now she dug her claws into the egg, forcing pressure on the eggshell. It finally splintered. And for the first time in this small, fragile dragonet's life, she saw something else besides her boring eggshell. The scenery around her was beautiful, almost something out of a dream. She was on the face of a cliff. An egg besides her hadn't hatched yet. Bathing in the moonlight, she spotted far away a polar bear with its two cubs on the crisp, white snow. The dragonet gazed at them in wonder. This dragonet didn't know it, but it was going to become the dragon planet's first animus dragon. For now though, she was like any other ordinary dragonet. For now. Chapter 1- Aurora the IceWing AURORA'S POV Aurora was gliding over the tundra, scanning with her sharp, coal-black eyes for any prey she could bring back to the IceWing palace. The landscape was stark white, except for the occasional bush here or there. There. Something moved. She glanced in that direction. It was a caribou herd. Plump and juicy and tender ones. Aurora's mouth watered. Well, don't just sit here, ''she scolded herself. ''Go over there and catch them! She swooped above them and hovered there, deciding which one she should kill. The slowest? ''she asked herself. ''The juiciest? She finally spotted one that seemed both slow and juicy-looking. Aurora called on the cold inside her, the snowstorm in her that would never cease. She opened her jaws wide, and... WHAT WAS ''THAT? she thought. She whipped around and... she saw the most bizarre creature she had ever seen. It was covered in so many furs that it looked like a bear... but there was no mistaking it. What she saw was a scavenger- and strangest of all... ...it was all the way in the arctic. Chapter 2- Scavenger Encounter '''AURORA'S POV' This certain scavenger was hunched over a boulder and was using its tiny, clever paws to grind a rock he was holding with the boulder. Curious to see why he was doing, Aurora hovered closer to it until it was only a few tail-lengths away. Abruptly the scavenger's head shot up. When it checked the sky and spotted Aurora, he didn't scream his head off or bolt off somewhere else the way a normal scavenger would do. Instead, it remarked something. And strangest of all, Aurora could understand ''what it was saying. "Have you ever wished for something?" he asked. Aurora was dumbfounded. Scavengers could not talk. They just could not. Whatever came out a scavenger's mouth was either gibberish or partially digested food. And yet, the scavenger ''in front of her had just asked a question- casually, in the tongue of dragons. You're dreaming, you're dreaming, ''she reassured herself. ''Scavengers cannot talk. "Answer me," the scavenger commanded. The only response Aurora could stutter out was, "Scavengers can't talk!" and flew down to examine the scavenger more closely. "What are even scavengers?" asked the baffled scavenger. "Oh come on, don't pretend you don't know," snarled Aurora. "If you are as much as a fuzzbrain as I think, for your information, a scavenger is the species you are." "Oh," said the scavenger. "We call ourselves humans." "Whatever." Aurora was sure she was dreaming. She opened her wings, ready to fly away. Perhaps gliding back to her palace would help with her dream. She leaped off the ground. "Wait," pleaded the scavenger. There was something in his tone that showed he meant it. "Come back." Having no other choice, Aurora dropped back onto the ground with a faint thud. "Have you ever wished for something?" he asked again. "Um, yes," said Aurora. From the corner of her eye, she saw the caribou herd on the move again. They disappeared over the horizon. She tried not to hide her disappointment. "Have you ever thought... about the possibility of them coming true?" "No, of course not," snapped Aurora. "Some things can never come true." "Well... what if they can?" Chapter 3- Truly an Animus AURORA'S POV What the scavenger just said stopped Aurora's thinking immediately. "What!" she cried. "It's possible," said the sly scavenger with a smile, shrugging. "Tell me how." Aurora snatched the scavenger off the ground. "LET GO OF ME!" the scavenger snarled. "Fine!" Aurora dropped him from her talon. "HEY!" the scavenger screeched, outraged. "Don't treat me like that!" "Sorry," Aurora mumbled, rolling her eyes, not feeling sorry at all. The scavenger suddenly bolted. That was all it took to make Aurora flare with anger. "You think you can outrun a dragon can't you!" she growled. She sped full speed towards the scavenger, talons outstretched. Then she pinned him to the ground with one sharp claw. "Tell me how!" she spat again. "Or you may find yourself to be a bloody mass as food for the wolves." That shut the scavenger up. "HOW MANY TIMES DO YOU WANT ME TO TELL YOU THAT--" Aurora began. "Alright you greedy little monster," the scavenger said, sounding very annoyed. "My kind possesses a powerful magic capable of doing many things. All you have to say is, 'I enchant...' then whatever you enchant will what you tell it to do. For example... I enchant Aurora to lose all her claws." Aurora shrieked as her claws detached themselves from her body. Blood trickled down her blunt talons. "Now I enchant the claws to go back onto Aurora's talons without pain and blood," the scavenger quickly replied, for he had not expected it to be so bloody. To the scavenger's astonishment (whose name was Slash), Aurora seemed more amazed than furious. "Did you just use... animus magic?" she whispered, staring at her healed talons, mostly to herself. "Um, yes," answered Slash, more confused than Aurora. Aurora immediately got down on her knees, folded her wings, and bowed to the scavenger. Then she asked, "With all due respect, scavenger, may you enchant me to be an animus?" Slash hesitated. If he gave this dragon animus power, there could be no limit to what she could do. But if he added some disadvantages... "Fine," said Slash defiantly. "I will give you animus magic... but you must know one thing." Aurora's ears perked up. "You must not use your magic too much," the scavenger warned, "or you will go mad." "What do you mean?" asked Aurora as pinpoints of fear stabbed her. "It means," said Slash matter-of-factly, "The price for one animus spell is part of your soul, even if you enchant your soul to never lose itself." "Alright, I accept your terms," said Aurora, shivering not from the freezing air but from fear. "Oh, and another thing," said the scavenger, looking Aurora in the eye. "You can cast spells without speaking. And any children you have... may have a chance of being an animus, for these powers pass down to your descendants. Understand?" "Yeah, yeah, I get it," said Aurora, rolling her eyes. "I enchant Aurora the IceWing dragon to possess animus magic," Slash rambled. Almost right after the scavenger said those words, it felt like lightning had struck her. Her body felt charged with new energy. "Thank you," said Aurora, bowing in reverence to the scavenger. In a flash of light, the scavenger vanished. Aurora faced the pink glow that marked where the sun had set and flew towards it. Her first spell would be to become the IceWing queen. Chapter 4- Frostbite and Tern AURORA'S POV 10 years later... Aurora the IceWing queen was gazing at her beloved 2-year-old dragonets. She had married another IceWing. She had a family. Her first-born dragonet was Frostbite. Frostbite's younger brother was Tern. "Look! Look!" Tern cried. "A polar bear and its cubs are over there!" He pointed to the faint, blurry outline of the camouflaged bears. "Race you to them! Whoever takes one bite out of one of the bears first wins!" Frostbite sped off towards the bears in a flash. Tern followed shortly after. A dragon came up behind Aurora and laughed. It was her husband, Polar Bear, but Bear for short. "Our dragonets are playful aren't they?" he asked. "Sure thing," Aurora answered, grinning. Frostbite was flying back with the shredded adult polar bear and Tern was carrying the two bleeding cubs. "I still won," Frostbite declared. "But it wasn't fair," Tern complained, folding his arms. "You flew off before I could, so you won." "Fine, said Frostbite, wanting to play fair. "We can race to that river. Ready, set... GO!" She exploded into a halo of blue light and shot off like an arrow towards the river she had pointed to. Tern followed as swift as a falcon but could not catch up to her. Far away, Aurora could hear the triumphant shout of Frostbite announcing, "I WOOOON!!!" "Frostbite would make a good queen, wouldn't she?" asked Aurora, sighing. "Too bad she would have to kill me..." "True," agreed Bear. Aurora then turned her thoughts over to her gifting ceremony tomorrow. She would bestow a gift to the IceWings using her animus magic. She had already thought of the perfect gift. Every summer, their castle would melt, and all the dragons who lived in the palace would have to move out into dirt huts. Every winter, the IceWings had to rebuild it until they found out about Aurora's animus magic. Now, the IceWings didn't have to labor all winter to rebuild their castle. Aurora could just enchant it to rebuild itself. But Aurora had worried if she did it too many times, she would go insane, just like the scavenger had warned. She would have to devise another method. And that was how she came up with her brilliant idea. Aurora smiled. She would enchant the castle... to never melt. To top off all her thoughts, the animus testing ceremony was today. She would ask her dragonets- Frostbite and Tern- to hold a pile of snow in their talons and to state, "I enchant the snow in my talons to turn blue"- and if they were an animus, the snow would really turn blue. She had a feeling she already knew which one of her dragonets possessed animus magic. Chapter 5- The Animus Test AURORA'S POV Frostbite came bounding up to Bear and shouted, "DADDY! CAN TERN AND I EAT THOSE POLAR BEARS?" "Sure, why not," Bear replied. "It sounds like you're eating me though." He grimaced. "It's fine, we're not," said Tern, giving a reassuring pat to Bear. Frostbite dove into the adult polar bear and tore off big chunks of it at a time. Tern resorted to the two cubs. When they were finished, Aurora beckoned to them. "Come," she said grimly. "It's time for your test." "What test?" asked Frostbite uneasily. "You'll see," said Aurora. "Now follow me." Aurora led Frostbite and Tern to a spacious courtyard, where already twenty dragons were standing. Their heads were bowed and wings folded in respect. Over the course of the next ten minutes, the rest of the IceWing tribe arrived, the sounds of their talons echoing as they thudded into the crispy snow. Aurora glanced at Frostbite and noticed she was terrified. Her talons were shaking noticeably, and her tail kept swinging back and forth in anxiety. Tern, on the other talon, seemed completely calm and collected. "IceWings!" Aurora announced as she stepped on a carved ice block. "Today, we shall see... if any of my dragonets have animus magic." The whole crowd gasped in a satisfying way and Aurora smiled to herself. "Guards," she ordered a straight row of IceWings with spears. "Place snow into Frostbite's and Tern's talons." "Mother, what is going on?" Frostbite asked in confusion. "Didn't you just hear?" Tern asked, annoyed. "It's an animus test." "Oh," Frostbite said, finally understanding. She had been picking at her tail spikes in terror. The guards lined up in front of Tern and Frostbite, one tail-length away. Two of them stepped out, knelt down, scooped up snow, and plopped it in their talons. Tern looked at his talons in anticipation. Frostbite looked at hers as if they would turn into sharks and bite her. "Now," Aurora ordered her dragonets, "Tell the pile of snow in your talons to turn blue. And say that enchantment out loud. Tern may go first." Tern's talons shook as he stated, "I enchant the snow in my talons to turn blue." Tern waited. And waited. And waited. But nothing happened. "Um," Tern said nervously. "Should I try again?" "Alright, if you must," Aurora said. Tern once again recited the same thing. This time, he waited for at least fifty heartbeats. Still, nothing happened. Tern was evidently disappointed. He dropped the snow he had been holding back onto the ground. "Your turn," Aurora said, turning to Frostbite. Frostbite shakily said the words, "I enchant the snow I am holding to turn blue." Nothing happened for a heartbeat. Suddenly, the snow in her talons started pulsing all sorts of shades of blue. It was like sea-blue paint had been dropped into the snow in her talons. Frostbite screamed like she was touching fire and dropped the cursed snow. Her talons were stained blue, the color of IceWing blood. The whole crowd gasped. It was a gasp of sheer horror and amazement. "Well done!" Aurora cried leaping towards her daughter. She gave Frostbite a fierce hug. As Frostbite was wrapped in Aurora's arms, she whispered so softly even Aurora could barely hear, "I'm scared. I don't want it. I don't want it." "It's okay," Aurora soothed. "Everything is going to be all right." But Aurora and Frostbite didn't notice Tern, who was glaring at both of him, his eyes full of hate. Chapter 6- Category:Fanfictions Category:Fanfictions (Incomplete) Category:Fanfictions (Fanon) Category:Fanfictions (Canon)